Shorts
How do you check if land is in a flood zone?
A FEMA flood map check is free and takes about five minutes. Zone X means outside the special flood hazard area, Zone D means nobody studied it, and a clean map answers the lender's question, not yours. Text LAND to (307) 337-9113 for price drops and new lots.
How do you check if a piece of land is in a flood zone?
Look up the address or parcel on FEMA's Flood Map Service Center. It is free and takes about five minutes. Read the zone letter printed over the lot: Zone X means outside the special flood hazard area, Zone D means nobody studied it. A clean map answers the lender's question; walking the land after rain answers yours.
What is the special flood hazard area?
It is the 1 percent annual chance flood area. In FEMA's words, it is the area that will be inundated by the flood event having a 1-percent chance of being equaled or exceeded in any given year. The zone letters on the map are drawn around that line.
Source: FEMA glossary, Flood zones
What do shaded and unshaded Zone X mean?
Both sit outside the 1 percent flood area. FEMA describes shaded Zone X, moderate risk, as the areas between the limits of the base flood and the 0.2 percent annual chance, or 500 year, flood. Unshaded Zone X, minimal risk, is higher than the 500 year flood elevation.
Source: FEMA glossary, Flood zones
Does a clean flood map mean the lot stays dry?
No. The maps model rivers and large drainage systems. They do not model the low corner of your lot after a heavy Ozark rain. Use the map for the zone, then stand on the land, ideally after a rain, before you commit.
Transcript
Almog, how do you actually know a piece of land doesn't flood? You look it up. FEMA's flood map service, and it's free. Takes about five minutes. You read the letter printed over the lot. Zone X means outside the special flood hazard area. Zone D means nobody studied it, and that is not a clean result. So a clean map means dry ground? No. Those maps model rivers and large drainage systems. They don't model the low corner of your lot after a heavy Ozark rain. The map answers the lender's question. Standing on the land answers yours. Free, five minutes, and almost nobody does it.
Sources
Lots you can look at right now
- 0.25 Acres, 1205 Pavilion Ln, Horseshoe Bend in Horseshoe Bend, AR (0.25 acres, $2,250 cash or $149 at signing)
- 0.29 Acres, Lot 32, Horseshoe Bend in Horseshoe Bend, AR (0.29 acres, $1,995 cash or $149 at signing)
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